Britain’s golden moment is fresh humiliation for the French

Sir Chris Hoy arguably became Britain’s greatest Olympian by winning his sixth gold medal Tuesday in the men’s keirin final. That victory led him past the previous record holder, Sir Steve Redgrave, who, according to The Sun, congratulated Hoy at the scene.

While that velodrome victory was nothing but sweet for the U.K., it may have evoked markedly different sentiments for France. Continuing the long tradition of rivalry between England and France — chronicled in the recent book “1,000 Years of Annoying the French” and elsewhere — the two countries have butted heads once again, this time over cycling, with the British side making its Gallic counterparts look gullible by leaking the “information” that the Team GB entry was using “specially round wheels,” reported the Sun. France’s cycling director, Isabelle Gautheron, reportedly took that bait, saying a detailed investigation of the British cycling gear would be conducted.

Hoy’s victory came on top of another recent humiliation for French cycling partisans when the U.K.’s Bradley Wiggins became the first British champion of the Tour de France. French riders have won that famed race 36 times, twice as many wins as claimed by riders from second-place Belgium and three times as many winners as boasted by No. 3 Spain. But a Frenchman has not won the Tour de France since 1985.

Team GB’s facetiously enhanced bicycle wheels hardly represented the first mention of foul play at the 2012 Games. There have been several incidents of actual misconduct resulting in the disqualification of athletes.

Most recently, U.S. judoka star Nicholas Delpopolo was expelled from the Games after testing positive for cannabis, which the athlete blamed on eating baked goods he did not know were laced with the drug.

Of course, there’s the now-famous story of the eight badminton players who were disqualified for strategically competing less well than they were capable of doing.

Runner Taoufik Makhloufi of Algeria managed to overturn his disqualification over allegedly running the 800-meter deliberately slowly. He went on to win gold in the 1,500-meter.

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